The Wrong Label in the Gallery

Eugenie had been working at the museum for eleven weeks when she began to doubt a painting. It hung in the second gallery, a small oil of a tidal river at dusk. The label beside it read: "Attributed to the Master of the Grey Estuary, c. 1840."

欧仁妮在博物馆工作了十一周，开始对一幅画产生怀疑。它挂在第二展厅，是一幅黄昏时分潮汐河流的小幅油画。旁边的标签写着：“归于灰色河口大师名下，约1840年。”

She passed it every morning on her way to the archive. Only during a lighting check, with a cloth in her hand, did she notice the mark in the lower corner. It was a tiny fish, drawn in two curved strokes, no longer than a grain of rice.

她每天早上去档案室的路上都会经过它。直到一次检查灯光，她手里拿着抹布，才注意到右下角有一个记号。那是一条小鱼，两笔弧线勾成，比一粒米还短。

Nobody knew who the Master of the Grey Estuary really was. Scholars had invented the name because none of his paintings were signed. A signature, then, should not have been there at all.

没有人知道灰色河口大师到底是谁。学者们编出这个名字，是因为他的画都没有签名。这样一来，那里根本不该有签名。

In the east wing, however, hung a harbor scene by a painter who put a small fish on every canvas. Eugenie stood in front of it for ten minutes. The skies matched: both were built from short, dry dabs of paint rather than smooth blending.

可是，东翼挂着一幅港口风景画，画家在每一幅画布上都画一条小鱼。欧仁妮在它面前站了十分钟。天空是吻合的：两幅画都是用短而干的点触堆出来的，而不是平滑地晕染。

She photographed both corners through a magnifying lens and spent two afternoons in the archive. In a box of unsorted papers she found a dealer's receipt dated 1843. It listed "one estuary view at dusk, small, signed with the fish," sold for three marks.

她用放大镜拍下了两个角落，又在档案室里待了两个下午。在一盒没整理的纸张里，她找到一张注明1843年的画商收据。上面列着“河口黄昏景一幅，小幅，鱼形签名”，售价三马克。

Lennart, the senior curator, had run the gallery for twenty years. He listened to her with his arms crossed.

伦纳特是资深策展人，主管这个展厅二十年了。他抱着胳膊听她讲。

"That label has been on the wall for sixty years," he said. "People far more experienced than you have walked past that painting."

“那块标签已经在墙上挂了六十年了，”他说，“比你有经验得多的人，都从那幅画前走过去过。”

"I know," Eugenie said. "But if I were wrong, checking would cost us one afternoon."

“我知道，”欧仁妮说，“可是就算我错了，核实一下，也不过花我们一个下午。”

"A fish could mean anything. Half the painters of that period doodled in the corners."

“一条鱼可以代表任何东西。那个时期一半的画家都喜欢在角落里乱涂。”

"Perhaps. However, the receipt says 'signed with the fish,' and the date agrees with the conservation report." She slid the photographs across the desk. "Someone must have looked at this before, but nobody wrote it down."

“也许吧。不过，收据上写的是‘鱼形签名’，而且日期和保护报告相符。”她把照片滑过桌面。“以前肯定有人看出过这一点，只是没人记下来。”

Lennart said that the museum would look foolish if it changed the label and then had to change it back. Eugenie answered that it would look much more foolish to keep a wrong one after being shown the evidence.

伦纳特说，要是博物馆把标签改了，之后又得改回来，那就太可笑了。欧仁妮回答说，在证据摆在面前之后还留着一块错的标签，那才可笑得多。

Neither of them spoke for a while. Down the corridor, a cart rattled past, and a school group was being led toward the east wing.

两人好一阵子谁也没说话。走廊那头，一辆推车哗啦啦驶过，一队学生被领着往东翼走去。

At last, Lennart held out his hand. "Give me the lens," he said.

最后，伦纳特伸出手。“把放大镜给我。”他说。

He bent over the photographs for a long time. Then he walked into the gallery, lifted the old label off its hook and turned it over. On the back, in pencil, he wrote: "Fish. See receipt, 1843."

他俯身看那些照片，看了很久。然后他走进展厅，把旧标签从挂钩上取下来，翻了过来。在背面，他用铅笔写道：“鱼。见收据，1843年。”

"Now get me the other file," he said. "And bring a second chair. If we are going to do this, we should do it properly."

“现在去把另一份档案拿来，”他说，“再搬一把椅子来。既然要做，就该好好地做。”